west coast elf/shad.

[houtbayahoy]

does anyone know where do the west coast elf in spots like langebaan, velddrif etc come from/disappear to? thanks to ORI we know elf on the east coast migrate north to the eastern cape/natal to spawn in winter, and return south in summer, but they don't mention much about the west coast elf. do they do the same, and round cape point, or do they possibly come from up the west coast? very strange that you can catch elf pretty much anywhere along the east coast between false bay and st lucia in the rivers and ocean at certain times of the year, but only at a few estuarine spots on the west coast where they congregate.

 

[Lord Litho]

There are some published research articles on this topic.

The one article abstract that I briefly scanned, suggested strong residency in Langebaan, with evidence of movement up the East Coast as well:

"The detection pattern of P. saltatrix suggested a tendency to residence within the embayment throughout the thirty month long study period, with nearly 60% of released individuals only being detected within the lagoon in the inner part of the embayment. However, there was a long-term trend of movement from the lagoon into the bay. One individual was recaptured off the east coast of South Africa 21 months after being tagged, 1760 km away."

Residency and migratory behaviour by adult Pomatomus saltatrix in a South African coastal embayment
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
Volume 89, Issue 1, 1 September 2010, Pages 12-20

 

[Monster]

I was at Veldrift a couple of years ago and saw the locals catch and keep every thing they cought. They would chumm a jetty and leave with buckets full of undersized fish.

This is where fish disappear to in my opinion

 

[Dr halibut hoffman]

LOL..true. But the fact that there are clouds of razorblades means there is a breeding stock up current from the estuary.

Litho interesting reading that..the main stock stays put in langebaan probably unless it goes cold for some reason..The winds that would do that are summer winds so they probably go there actually unless some made it round to false bay when the NW's come through then they'd get the hell out of there and go north again riding the upwell currents and find themselves in kwazulu soon..These big elf can move if they want to..

 

[proprettyboy]

My 2 cents and experience with this,

There is generally a period where we get big shad in the west coast, so either they come in to breed or they are returning from where they spawned.

Places I have encountered or heard of shad along the west coast is, Melkbos, ganzekraal, langebaan, Saldanha bay,Jacob's bay, Veldrift, Standfontein(past Doorn baai) so its quite expansive yet limited at the same time.


The small shad are dominant from August till say Beginning May. But they are always hammered at Veldrift as they come in to the river system for feeding and protection from predators.

A lot of the bigger shad I have seen come out is between Langebaan and Saldanha bay mostly on the boats.
I have heard of the fish going into the reserve in the lagoon during winter, but I honestly feel they just go to the deep waters and travel up and down the coast lines.

I feel with the red tide that occurred years back in the west coast, it left devastating effects on the fish population and recovery has been slow with all the netting going on around the coast.
I have to mainly direct this issue towards Veldrift social behavior, as I have personally seen an incredible difference in the fishing when the netters got nailed over a year back with the edibles at Soverby. So if daff had to invest in a proper marine poaching security it would attract a much healthier fishing system with fish coming in to spawn and have that spawned fish survive to be able to spawn more eggs later. Hopefully the marine protection zones will help with this.